Four Ways To Use Social Media To Your SEO Advantage

Good social media marketing leads consumers to a website; good SEO practices help consumers to find that website and to stay engaged with it.

Want your own results? Here are four ways to leverage social media for SEO:

1. Get the right followers.

Followers on social media are a lot like links in the SEO world. It’s not so much about the number as it is the quality. To get these followers, don’t buy them. Consistently building your social media presence, encouraging users to follow your page for special discounts or VIP offers, and generally offering good content will result in an increased following.

We’ve seen firsthand how a large, good-quality social following can lead to increased website traffic and higher quality traffic with a greater ROI.

2. Use social media for external link-building.

To piggyback off the last point, the greater number of followers you have, the greater the potential for shares you have online as well. And the more shares on social media you have, the more opportunities people have to see your content and link to it.

Focus on creating popular content. Popular content is fun, engaging, useful, visually appealing, entertaining and most importantly, share-worthy. To create high-quality content make sure your content is original, thought-provoking, full of answers, actionable, easy to read and has a strong headline.

And always include a link back to your main website domain. If you create high-quality content that gains traction on social media, both consumers and other websites will reference your link, which greatly helps your SEO. To best reach your target audience, take advantage of content promotion tools like Facebook Targeting or Twitter Ads.

3. Build your brand.

Don’t just share content for the sake of sharing content. We ensure that everything we post for our clients reflects the company’s mission and core values. If you don’t have a mission or core values expressly stated, I suggest making a mission statement and three to four core values for every single post to relate to.

At the same time, don’t make every post overly promotional or salesy. Our company uses a two-pronged process. We post engaging pictures, memes and articles that have to do with the client’s industry to grab the attention of those scrolling through their Facebook feed. This provides an entertaining aspect. But we also post ads, aimed primarily at getting a click to the client’s website. The website is, of course, search engine optimized.

Even if customers aren’t initially clicking on social media paid ads, this tactic is beneficial. Why? Because we generally click on the brands we know, not random brands we’ve never heard of. That means, the bigger your brand recognition is and the more consumers trust you, the likelier you are to receive a larger share of clicks on Google. The more clicks you get on Google from your new social audience, the higher you will start to rank.

4. Engage locally.

One thing search engines look for is how well you are engaging with your local community. That being the case, it isn’t just a good idea to reach out locally via social media, it’s a necessity.

To do this, update your accounts whenever your company gets involved in a local event. You can take pictures of these events or run live videos. If you are working with another organization or business nearby, let everyone know about it online. Post and comment on their social channels and encourage them to do the same on yours. Share their best content and seek out guest blog opportunities.

As you do this, you’ll simultaneously gain the trust of Google and potential customers in your area.

That’s A Wrap

Basically, if you aren’t utilizing social media, you aren’t doing SEO right. Of course, it’s not enough to just have a Facebook or Twitter account. Use them to gain followers, generate links, build your brand image and engage locally.